FROSTBURG, MD - The Salem Tigers kicked off their season this afternoon against the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown Mountain Cats. Salem is coming off of a 2022-23 season where they finished with a record of 13-17. They are led this season by first-year head coach, Nikayla Edgell, who comes to the Tigers from Alderson Broadus and was a former assistant with Salem in the 2021-22 season.

The first quarter of today's action was a tightly fought one with both teams eager to get a good start to the season. Salem took an early lead at 6-5 before the Mountain Cats started to get some momentum. UPJ went on a 10-2 run against the Tigers to take a 15-8 lead halfway into the first quarter. From there the Tigers buckled down defensively, allowing only one more point to the Mountain Cats in the remaining five minutes of play. The offense picked up as well, scoring eight more in the second half of the quarter. The scoring efforts were led by Teodora Popovic, who drained two three-pointers to help the Tigers close the gap. At the end of one, it was knotted up at 16-16.

The Tiger offense struggled in the second, and what made it worse was that UPJ had seemed to find some stride offensively. The scoring stayed close as it had in the first quarter during the first few minutes of the second. The Tigers even led 20-18 before UPJ's Cassidy Crawford hit a three-pointer to take the lead. That shot seemed to spark the Mountain Cat offense. They proceeded to go on a 14-0 run to take a 35-20 lead over the Tigers with under a minute left in the half. Salem was able to stop the bleeding a little with a triple from Anete Bluma and a floater from Carine Pinkney as she attacked the basket. Halfway through regulation, the Tigers found themselves down 35-25.

Coming out of the half it was clear Salem had made some offensive adjustments which were proving to work, but UPJ had adjusted too and their offense was clicking better than it had in the second quarter. Salem kept cutting the deficit back to single digits in the opening possessions of the half, but it seemed that UPJ had an answer every time. In the last half of the third quarter, the Mountain Cats really started to pour it on. Salem's offense in the third seemed to come exclusively from the three-point line and the charity stripe. This worked efficiently for the Tigers as they scored nineteen points and had their best quarter so far, but the Mountain Cat run to close the quarter had grown the deficit to nineteen as the Tigers found themselves down 63-44.

Salem's offense remained steady in the fourth quarter. They dominated the glass and defensively were able to come up with a few steals, but the deficit had already grown too large. The UPJ offense continued to play well and the Tigers were just never able to cut into the deficit. They went on to lose the game 81-60 and drop to 0-1 on the season.

The Tigers will stay in Frostburg for the night where tomorrow they will face off against the Rams of Winston-Salem State University at 1:00 in the afternoon.

SALEM STAT LEADERS:

Points: Teodora Popovic (14)

Assists: Carine Pinkney (4)

Rebounds: Anete Bluma (7)

Steals: Anna Machytkova (3)